Carolina will face off with another member of college basketball’s ruling class Monday night in New Orleans, taking on No. 1 seed Kansas for the national championship. The Jayhawks are the current all-time leader in wins by a program, having passed Kentucky earlier in the NCAA Tournament. Kansas and Carolina are two of only four Division I programs with more than 2,000 wins. The two schools have combined for nine NCAA titles and 37 Final Four appearances, though this is their first meeting in the title game since 1957, a game which Carolina won in triple overtime.
If you aren’t familiar with the Jayhawks, here’s a quick round-up:
Head Coach: Bill Self. Self has been one of the most successful coaches in college basketball since he took over at Kansas in 2003. Coincidentally, Self moved into the KU job thanks to Roy Williams leaving the Jayhawks for Carolina following the conclusion of the 2002-03 season. Since then, Self has compiled a 555-124 record with Kansas, and has won more than 80 percent of his conference games.
What’s the history? Carolina is 6-5 against Kansas since the 1949-50 season, although the Jayhawks have won the last three meetings, all of which have come in the NCAA Tournament. Each of those losses also came by double digits, with KU’s 84-66 win in the 2008 Final Four being a particularly sore spot for Carolina fans. The Jayhawks exploded to a 40-12 lead over the No. 1 overall seed Tar Heels in the first half. It was so ugly, CBS analyst Billy Packer declared the game over before halftime.
Player to watch: David McCormack. Ochai Agbaji has been the star for Kansas this year, but McCormack may be the most important player on the floor for UNC head coach Hubert Davis. The six-foot, ten-inch McCormack dominated Villanova in Saturday’s national semifinal, scoring 25 points on 10-12 shooting and ripping down nine rebounds. McCormack could have a juicy matchup on his plate Monday night, as UNC’s Armando Bacot will still be recovering from an ankle injury suffered late in the Duke game on Saturday night. Davis confirmed Bacot would play in the championship game, but it’s highly unlikely the big man will be operating at 100 percent.
“It could ultimately come down to the winner of that matchup being the determining factor of who wins the championship,” Davis said on Sunday.
Stats to watch: Kansas’ defense has been elite in the NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks have held each of their five opponents to under 40 percent shooting, and none of those teams made more than 23 shots during the entire game. The defense has been so good, Villanova’s 38.6 shooting percentage Saturday night was actually the highest given up by the Jayhawks in the tournament.
The two teams to play Kansas the closest in the NCAA Tournament, Creighton and Providence, coincidentally turned the ball over the least of any of the last five Jayhawks opponents. Kansas forced a combined 37 turnovers in wins over Texas Southern, Miami and Villanova, yet the Blue Jays and Friars combined for just 15 in their two games. Carolina turned the ball over 10 times against Duke Saturday night, including six (three of which came from Caleb Love) in the helter-skelter second half. If Carolina can keep the turnovers to single digits, their chances of winning will grow.
Kansas made just 13 three-pointers combined in three wins leading up to Saturday’s matchup with Villanova, yet scorched the nets for 13 in just the one game against the Wildcats. Even more impressive: the Jayhawks needed just 24 tries for those 13 makes. Their 54.2 percentage from downtown was their best since mid-February. Agbaji in particular was a menace from behind the arc, making six of seven tries and scoring 21 points. For the season, the Jayhawks have shot a good-but-not-great 36.1 percent from three-point range (the same as Carolina), yet their red-hot performance against Villanova is more than enough to cause some alarm.
Under the radar: In the media mayhem which surrounded Duke and Carolina Saturday night, it was easy to forget the Jayhawks. And yet, Kansas is the last No. 1 seed standing in the tournament, never trailed in its dominant win over Villanova, and has won 10 straight games. Kansas is 11-1 on neutral courts this season, with the only loss coming on a buzzer-beater to Dayton in November. The Jayhawks’ resume speaks for itself: a 33-6 overall record, along with a regular season championship and conference tournament championship in the rough-and-tumble Big 12. That includes an 83-59 win over Baylor in February. Carolina fans will remember well how difficult it is to complete a blowout of the Bears.
What are the odds? As of Sunday afternoon, Carolina is a four-point underdog in the game. The Tar Heels are 6-5 as the underdog this season, including their Final Four win over Duke as four-point underdogs.
Featured image via USA Today Sports/Robert Deutsch
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